Delightfully improbable adventures plus dinosaurs galore!
A child separated from their moms by more than 60 million years shares adventures with some Mesozoic companions.
Suddenly surrounded by lush greenery after getting trapped in a time machine, Evie—androgynous in appearance and drawn in the clean-lined, richly colored art with big, expressive eyes—is frantic to get a message back to Mom and Mama. Fortunately, an abandoned exploratory base nearby provides shelter and recordings of a previous research team’s logs. Unfortunately, the nearest temporal communicator is at another base, far away. But some time later, having raised Ada, a towering Quetzalcoatlus northropi, from a hatchling to a full-grown, flying pterosaur, Evie has the means to get there, fashioning a saddle and setting out on a soaring journey over Cretaceous landscapes for encounters with a colorful, carefully detailed cast of dinosaurs and dino cousins (all identified in an appended portrait gallery) and narrow escapes from natural disasters and toothy predators alike. Along with being laudably resourceful, Evie has a real way with animals; not only is the relationship between small child and intelligent, airplane-sized buddy palpably affectionate, but an injured young T. rex that Evie nurses back to health peaceably sticks around long enough to chase off a gang of smaller raptors and startle Mom and Mama when they at last rush in for a joyful reunion. One parent shares Evie’s coppery brown skin and glossy black hair; the other parent reads Black.
Delightfully improbable adventures plus dinosaurs galore! (Graphic science fiction. 8-11)Pub Date: Oct. 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780593327036
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Razorbill/Penguin
Review Posted Online: June 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2023
Dizzyingly silly.
The famous superhero returns to fight another villain with all the trademark wit and humor the series is known for.
Despite the title, Captain Underpants is bizarrely absent from most of this adventure. His school-age companions, George and Harold, maintain most of the spotlight. The creative chums fool around with time travel and several wacky inventions before coming upon the evil Turbo Toilet 2000, making its return for vengeance after sitting out a few of the previous books. When the good Captain shows up to save the day, he brings with him dynamic action and wordplay that meet the series’ standards. The Captain Underpants saga maintains its charm even into this, the 11th volume. The epic is filled to the brim with sight gags, toilet humor, flip-o-ramas and anarchic glee. Holding all this nonsense together is the author’s good-natured sense of harmless fun. The humor is never gross or over-the-top, just loud and innocuous. Adults may roll their eyes here and there, but youngsters will eat this up just as quickly as they devoured every other Underpants episode.
Dizzyingly silly. (Humor. 8-10)Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-545-50490-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to...
A group of talking farm animals catches wind of the farm owner’s intention to burn the barn (with them in it) for insurance money and hatches a plan to flee.
Bond begins briskly—within the first 10 pages, barn cat Burdock has overheard Dewey Baxter’s nefarious plan, and by Page 17, all of the farm animals have been introduced and Burdock is sharing the terrifying news. Grady, Dewey’s (ever-so-slightly) more principled brother, refuses to go along, but instead of standing his ground, he simply disappears. This leaves the animals to fend for themselves. They do so by relying on their individual strengths and one another. Their talents and personalities match their species, bringing an element of realism to balance the fantasy elements. However, nothing can truly compensate for the bland horror of the premise. Not the growing sense of family among the animals, the serendipitous intervention of an unknown inhabitant of the barn, nor the convenient discovery of an alternate home. Meanwhile, Bond’s black-and-white drawings, justly compared to those of Garth Williams, amplify the sense of dissonance. Charming vignettes and single- and double-page illustrations create a pastoral world into which the threat of large-scale violence comes as a shock.
Ironically, by choosing such a dramatic catalyst, the author weakens the adventure’s impact overall and leaves readers to ponder the awkward coincidences that propel the plot. (Animal fantasy. 8-10)Pub Date: July 7, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-544-33217-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2015
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